The Tour de l’Ain has finished, but the Eneco Tour is still in full flight and we have the results and video from all the stages. Loads of other news from around the world; Marcel Kittel tells the truth, Colombia welcomes Nairo Quintana and we have some Vuelta teams’ news. Add in Chris Froome looking at stems and we have a full EuroTrash Thursday. Coffee, coffee, coffee!

TOP STORY: Tell the Truth Kittel!
So it’s come to this? Professional bike riders have to take polygraph tests to prove that they are not dopers. German magazine SportBild asked super-sprinter Marcel Kittel to take a lie detector test to prove that he has never taken any doping products during his career. The big blond Adonis readily agreed, saying; “I have nothing to hide, so I did it. I stand for clean sport and this test has confirmed that,” and good for him for going through with the test, and being clean.

The psychologist who oversaw the test, Holger Leutz, asked Kittel different questions and amongst them was; had he ever used drugs or illegal substances, to this his answer was no. Dr. Leutz described the test: “We monitor the variations in the blood pressure, the pulse, breathing and breathing both open and closed questions. The things that we measured during the interview remained very even. That is a sign of credibility. Kittel makes us believe in a pure generation of cyclists. I dare say in response to what the detector indicates that Marcel Kittel has never used doping and is a clean athlete.”

It’s not surprising that this has happened in Germany, after the revelations of the doping cases of Jan Ullrich, Erik Zabel and the Telekom and Gerolsteiner teams, which all helped German TV stations to decide to ignore the Tour de France.

Maybe this should be part of the UCI Bio-passport or a once a year lie test for all riders. We could take it to up a step and Pat McQuaid, Hein Verbruggen and Lance Armstrong could all have a polygraph test, now that would be interesting.

Mr. Clean-Truth.

Eneco Tour 2013
The 175.3 kilometre long Stage 1 of the Belgian/Dutch stage race, Eneco Tour was a practically flat stretch from Koksijde and Androoie where a breakaway trio consisting of Laurens de Vreese, Pieter Jacobs (Topsport) and Benjamin Verraes (Accent Jobs) dominated most of the stage

With a clever attack in the final kilometre, Mark Renshaw has secured himself of the first Eneco Tour leader’s jersey. The Australian Belkin Pro Cycling Team rider saw the complete peloton keeping two eyes on his teammate Theo Bos and decided this was his opportunity. Under the red flag he attacked and thousand metres further down the road he arrived solo at the line in Ardooie. “The initial plan was to ride for Theo,” Renshaw stated afterwards. “In the final, he was right in my wheel properly, but with still a long way to go it was just the two of us. He then opened up a small gap, I think on purpose, and that was crucial for me to win. I have to thank Theo for that.”

Renshaw strongly held on to his lead despite the fact that he was on his own for more than a kilometre. “I went as fast as I could through the last couple of corners; I took some risks. Merijn Zeeman shouted in my ear that I needed to give one hundred per cent and that’s what I did. I’m pretty good at keeping a high speed over a longer distance. In the last two hundred metres I have not looked back once and luckily I saw nobody pass me.”

Thanks to his win Renshaw is the first leader of the 2013 Eneco Tour. He will start Tuesday’s stage in white, but that won’t change his nor the team tactics. “Tomorrow we will ride for Theo again. He simply is our fastest guy. Lars Boom and Wilco Kelderman are still our GC guys.”

Lampre-Merida’s Maximiliano Ariel Richeze did not forget the good habit to hang out in the top five positions of the races classifications, the Argentinean sprinter was 4th: “I’m happy that the team supported me, I thank especially Pozzato who was on my side in the final kilometres when we tried to be in the head positions of the group in the approach to the sprint,” Richeze commented, “My fitness is good, I’d like to exploit it in order to get good results and to be ready to take part in Vuelta a España. Today 4th place is a good start”.

Saxo-Tinkoff DS, Tristan Hoffman says: “We all knew it going to be a day for the sprinters so I guess no one expected Renshaw to go solo on the final kilometre. We’re here with Daniele, Matti and Johnny but we had no one in the top ten. Surely, we had hoped for more but we’ll get another chance tomorrow. Matti is in good form after Tour of Denmark and Daniele has probably recovered from the Tour de France and we’re hoping that we can get a stage win and maybe even a good overall result.”

Arnaud Démare (FDJ) won the uphill battle for Stage 2 from Ardooie to Vorst over 176.9 kilometres. BMC Racing Team’s Daniel Oss brought Gilbert to the front halfway up the steep, uphill finish at the end of the 176.9-kilometer race. “It was perfect,” Gilbert, the world road champion, said. “I thought this would be my moment. I had to do a sprint of 200 meters uphill, which I normally can. But Arnaud Démare came pretty fast and I couldn’t respond.”

Earlier in the stage a four man break of Gediminas Bagdonas (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Mat Hayman (Sky) and Laurens De Vreese & Tim Declercq (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise). Bagdonas was the first to be dropped on the final climb with 15 kilometres to go and they were all pulled back with 2 kilometres to go and BMC took on the lead-out work.

Démare took the race lead from Mark Renshaw (Belkin), whose puncture in the final three kilometres took him out of contention for the sprint. Gilbert is now third overall, four seconds behind Démare and one second behind Renshaw, while Phinney is sixth, eight seconds off the lead. Gilbert added to his string of runner-up placings that already included the Belgian national time trial championship on Sunday, Stage 6 of Paris-Nice in March and Brabantse Pijl in April. “I’m good, the condition is good,” he said. “I’m certainly missing the win. I’m always pretty close. Being second or third is not so nice and doesn’t count.”

Phinney, who finished a team-best sixth on Monday’s opening stage, said it was a “nervous, stressful” stage that saw a four-man breakaway reduced to three before being brought back in the final 10 km. “I was well taken care of by Manuel Quinziato especially,” Phinney said. “In the end, Oss, Klaas Lodewyck, Danilo Wyss and Amaël Moinard were all riding the front. So that was very helpful to keep everything together for Phil and me in the end.” Phinney said he knew the finish favoured Gilbert more than him. “I was just staying safe up there for the overall, making sure I didn’t lose any time,” he said. “I guess I’m in the point’s jersey now. It’s a bit of a surprise, but a good way to start the race.”

Misfortune struck the Movistar Team during the 2nd stage of the 2013 Eneco Tour, held on Tuesday over 177km from Ardooie to Brussels, with Britain’s Alex Dowsett crashing out of the race 44km into the day’s route, both hands receiving the impact. Dowsett still got back to the bunch before feeling massive pain that ultimately forced him to withdraw.

Preliminary checks on the Essex rider seem to rule out any fractures, but still revealed dislocations in both thumbs, as well as several bruises. This crash is a huge setback for Dowsett, brilliant winner of the long ITT in the Giro d’Italia and crowned triple national TT champion last June, with his sights until today put on the 13km time trial of Sittard-Geleen scheduled for stage five.

“We launched an attack in the finale with Matti but the peloton thundered in on him and on the breakaway and we started preparing for a bunch sprint. Here, Marko really demonstrated great power and good timing in the battle for position and it paid off with a fourth place on a tough and slightly uphill finish,” said Saxo-Tinkoff DS, Tristan Hoffman.

The 187 kilometre Stage 3 of the Eneco Tour brought the peloton to the Dutch seaboard to finish in Brouwersdam. And it wasn’t quite the usual game of cat and mouse between the field and a breakaway. Several different breaks took turns creating gaps to the irresolute peloton, the most dangerous included; Alex Rasmussen (Garmin Sharp), Axel Domont (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Eloy Teruel (Movistar), and Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise) which had a lead of 6 minutes at one point.

But with 17 kilometres remaining, the pack was complete and the sprinter teams were fighting intensely for a good position for their sprinters in the expected bunch sprint. However, four riders managed to launch a surprise attack and created a small gap in the final kilometre and on the finish line, Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step), Maximiliano Ariel Richeze (Lampre Merida), Lars Boom (Belkin) and Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Belisol) rode hard to the line, although Roelandts was dropped. The ex-World cyclo-cross champion; Zdenek was the fastest in the sprint and took the stage win. Stybar crossed the line with fists pumping for the 48th OPQS win (46th road) in three disciplines in 2013. Richeze was 2nd, Boom was 3rd. Arnaud Démare (FDJ) held onto his overall lead, but Lars Boom moved a little closer with his bonus seconds.

OPQS was the aggressor throughout the race, sensing windy conditions and splitting the peloton earlier in the stage. While the race came back together with 57km to go, they dictated the pace and were able to also control their position well in the final.

“We knew today there was a possibility of a windy stage, so in the last two laps we tried to make a split,” Sport Director Wilfried Peeters said. “In the circuit there was also a head wind. So we gave up, it was impossible to make something good out of the action. We decided to go for Petacchi in the final. Petacchi was on the wheel of Greipel, but in the last corner there was a gap. Petacchi was intelligent to stay on wheel of Greipel and that maintained the gap that permitted Stybar to play his chance today. I think it is a great result after the surgery Styby had to pass. I am happy for him and the team. Now he is 3rd in the GC. On Friday we have a time trial and we will lose a few seconds for sure. But on Saturday and Sunday we have two stages where Styby can defend himself and why not, try to get something good in the GC. We will see day-by-day, step-by-step. Today is important enough and we are happy with this result.”

“I am really happy because it’s the first victory since the Tour de Pologne last year,” Stybar said. “After the surgery I had on my knee I couldn’t train as I normally would. I really hated the period after the surgery because I couldn’t really follow a specific schedule. It wasn’t easy, but in the last weeks I was able to train really well in the Czech Republic, and after that good period at altitude camp. I felt I was improving quickly at that point. I knew I was going better today but still, I have never sprinted in my life. Even in training I didn’t practice. The sprint is not my strongest point but probably after today I will change my mind because I was able to win. Maybe it is because I am sleeping in the same room as Petacchi. Maybe his sprint power rubbed off on me (laughs).”

“About the sprint, I knew it was going to be tough,” Stybar continued. “Because the lap before, I asked Alessandro to ride for me to take the bonification. Alessandro worked for me and making that sprint I understood it was really tough as there was a headwind from the left. It was a really difficult final. When I did the sprint in the final I waited, waited, and waited for the right moment. I let the other guys pass, jumped on the wheel of Richeze and then I came out from his wheel and I did my sprint in the very last moment to be powerful enough to pass him. It’s really nice to have a win like this. It’s especially nice because tomorrow we arrive in Essen where I live with my girlfriend when I am in Belgium. It’s really nice to arrive there with the win. We will see now, as starting on Friday we will start the weekend for the GC. I am focused on the TT. I know I will lose something but I want to try to go full gas and try to go into the final two stages in a good GC position. In Tour de Pologne I was pretty OK on the climbs. I will try to do my best on Saturday, and Sunday, the finish is more for my skills.”

Second on the stage, Maximiliano Ariel Richeze (Lampre-Merida): “It was a very good day for me, my legs were super and my team was outstanding in supporting me,” Richeze explained. “Unluckily, I could not complete in a winning way my perfect performance. I must say thanks to Viganò for having led me in the front of the bunch just before the bend in which Boom and Stybar escaped from the group: I followed them and we could go to the finish. Boom started early the sprint, he obtained some meters of advantage on me, so I decided to increase the speed. Probably it would have been better to wait for a little longer, since in the final 100 meters my action lost power. It’s a pity I could not get to the victory, but being so close to the victory in a bunch full of top sprinters makes me happy.”

“I attacked too early,” said Lars Boom (Belkin) about his sprint. “I needed to sit in during the last metres, which was when they passed me. Anyway, if I had waited longer, they would have stayed in my wheel and it would have been difficult to win, as well.”

A stage win would have awarded Boom the leader’s jersey, which would have been very welcome with tomorrow’s stage in mind. Tomorrow the peloton finishes in Boom’s hometown and birthplace, Vlijmen. “It’s a pity I didn’t win because I would’ve been able to enter Vlijmen in the leader’s jersey. Nevertheless, it will be a special day, as a pro I have never ridden through Vlijmen.”

Thanks to the bonus seconds that Boom picked up with his third place today, he moved up to second overall. The gap to GC leader Arnaud Démare is only one second, which is encouraging looking ahead to the heavy Ardennes stages. “I gathered some seconds again; that’s really motivating when I think of Saturday and Sunday. Although those stages have a totally different character. I may come up with another set of legs for those days.”

BMC Racing Team’s Taylor Phinney and Philippe Gilbert saw their top 10 positions shuffled in the overall classification. Gilbert slid from third to fifth overall, four seconds behind race leader Arnaud Démare (FDJ), while Phinney is now eighth, at eight seconds. Both BMC Racing Team riders were part of the peloton that finished two seconds behind the riders who broke away just outside the final kilometre. The late escape marked the second significant split in the peloton during the stage. The first occurred about 100 kilometres from the finish, not long after a crash took down Phinney. That incident, combined with a split in the peloton in strong crosswinds, caught out all but two BMC Racing Team riders – Gilbert and teammate Klaas Lodewyck. Phinney said the crash happened in a moment where he thought he was safe, riding near the front. “Some guys touched wheels, it’s nervous in the bunch, so there’s a lot of really heavy, sudden braking and I found myself on the wrong side of somebody’s wheel,” he said. After finishing 60th on the stage, Phinney said his injuries appeared to be minor. “The road rash isn’t too bad,” he said, “but I hit my head a little bit and I’ve got to be careful of that because I have had head injuries in the past. But I don’t think it is anything too bad.”

Following a chase of more than 40 kilometres, with the time gap between the front group of about two dozen riders and the chasing peloton hovering between 15 and 25 seconds, the two groups came together with 57 km to go. Phinney thanked his teammates for helping him regain the field, first after the crash, and then after the split. “Danilo Wyss brought me back and then Daniel Oss, Amaël Moinard, Manuel Quinziato and again, Danilo, rode really hard to make it back,” he said. “I’m really thankful to them.”

Team Saxo-Tinkoff DS, Tristan Hoffman comments from Holland: “The boys did a solid effort at the entrance to the finale where we tried to put Marko (Kump) in a favourable position but when the stage was decided, he was boxed in. however, Johnny (Cantwell) managed to sprint to 12th position. We expected a much harder finale due to cross winds but for once, there was hardly any wind at the coastline so the peloton remained almost complete. I’m however happy with the boys’ effort and we’re trying again tomorrow,” said Hoffman.

Tour de l’Ain 2013
As expected, the peloton was completely torn apart during today’s 136 kilometre Stage 3 of Tour de l’Ain where the Jura Mountains put a natural closure on the heavier riders in the field before the finale.

With 30 kilometres to go, a big group was going in on the penultimate climb but from then on, the front group shattered again and on the uphill finish, Luis Leon Sanchez (Belkin) was the strongest and won the stage. The overall changed completely as Belkin put Tom Jelte Slagter in the overall lead and Sanchez in second.

“It was a wonderful day for us, with the stage win and the overall jersey,” said Belkin Sports Director Erik Dekker. “It was a very hard stage, with everyone attacking from the beginning. Kruijswijk rode into a breakaway, but he was caught before the final climb, and that’s where everything happened. Luis and Tom-Jelte made the front group.”

Sánchez linked up with Belkin teammate Slagter in the decisive move over the Cat. 1 Col de Menthières late in the 137km stage. Sánchez played it smart, and did not try to follow the French climbers. Instead, he chased back on during the descent, and attacked the group with 1km to go to win for the second time this season.

“When Sánchez is in the front group like that, he always has a good chance to win. He showed today he is still fast,” Dekker said. “Sánchez rode smart. He made just that one move, and he was gone. It was wonderful.”

Slagter crossed the line second, just one second behind Sánchez, to take over the leader’s jersey. With Sánchez now in second on GC just four seconds back, the team will have two cards to play to try to win the overall going into Tuesday’s fourth and final stage.

“Hopefully we can bring the jersey home to Holland tomorrow,” Slagter said. “It’s still a long climb tomorrow. I’ve never done it. We have a strong team here, so hopefully we can control the stage. I have a good gap to the others. The final climb Col du Grand Colombier is still 40km from the finish, so if anyone gets clear, we can chase that down.”

“It was a very hard stage we stayed behind until the penultimate climb where 8 riders created the crucial gap. Unfortunately, we were not able to follow but Mads and Bruno fought intensely behind trying to the bridge the gap. It’s going to be very hard taking the overall now but we’re still aiming for a good overall result and the course is almost inviting us to attack,” said Saxo-Tinkoff DS, Fabrizio Guidi.

The mountainous Final Stage 4 of the French stage race was dominated by Saxo-Tinkoff as both Bruno Pires and Sergio Paulinho attacked on the hilly course and made it in to the crucial breakaway.

But on the final climb, the break was split up and Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM) managed to escape and the duo were to fight it out on the finish line where Poels drew the longest straw. However, Romain Bardet took the overall win.

Bardet, after his victory highlighted the work of all the Ag2r-La Mondiale team that day: “I am very happy because above all it’s a collective victory. Each rider made his own contribution and today everything happened as planned in the meeting this morning. The team did a great job. We knew we had to be able to do anything at this stage and everyone did their part. We continue our wave of good results and the dynamics of the Tour de France and this victory rewards the efforts of the whole team.”

Bardet could not deny that he agreed to collaborate with Poels after escaping in La Colombiere, 30 kilometres from the finish: “I spoke to Wout Poels. I said if we came with 30 seconds lead, I would let him win. We really had common interests.”

It was a special debut to him: “This is my first professional win and that’s a great happiness. It had started to get impatient after not winning in a year and a half. I know the route of the Tour de l’Ain is a race I’ve always appreciated. In fact it is my fourth time and is my favourite race. I knew that if I could stay focused after the Tour de France, I would be able to maintain good form and condition performance. Today became a reality and that’s great.”

His performance in the Tour, raised French expectations, which he ignored. “I try to remove myself from all that is said by the end of the Tour. There are often riders in my case and you can see that the pressure is not always easy to handle. I stay in my bubble. I try to go one step further every year since my first season as a junior in 2007. I hope it stays that way.”

His next targets will be the GP Québec and GP de Montréal, on 13 and 15 September respectively. “I want to make a good race in the two Canadian races and want to go to the World Championships,” he confirmed.

“We tried hard to get that stage win we were in the race for. First, Mads (Christensen) launched an attack early in the stage but it wasn’t until Bruno (Pires) and Sergio (Paulinho) attacked that the breakaway seemed to get a good gap. Sergio even had the power to launch a solo attack from the front group but they managed to drag him back in while Pires was fighting to remain in the front group. Unfortunately, no stage win for us. But we did what we could to get it and we just have to face that someone was stronger than us here,” said Saxo-Tinkoff’s Fabrizio Giudi.

Giant for Argos-Shimano, Bianchi for Belkin in 2014
The rumour mill is suggesting that the Italian bike manufacturer Bianchi will be supplying bikes to the Belkin team next year. The Vacansoleil-DCM team, who is at present on Bianchi, will probably disappear next year, so Bianchi are moving to the other Dutch team. Meanwhile Argos-Shimano will end its agreement with the American Felt company and be astride the Taiwanese brand Giant.

Ben Swift Ends Season
Ben Swift (Sky) has hung his wheels up for the 2013 season due to his shoulder injury which forced him to abandon the Eneco Tour on stage 2. He will undergo surgery and have the winter to recover and build up for next year. He told the Sky team web-site: “I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t pull on the handlebars, I couldn’t accelerate out of corners properly. So we’ve made the call now to finish the season and focus on getting the shoulder fixed.”

Nairo Quintana; Home is the Hero
Three weeks after his historic performance in the Tour de France and a few days later his spectacular win in the Vuelta a Burgos, Nairo Quintana was congratulated by his countrymen. The Movistar Team rider was greeted on Tuesday afternoon at the El Dorado airport in the Colombian capital by a crowd who accompanied him for many miles in the convertible bus in which Quintana toured the main streets of the city. Their destination was the Presidential Palace, the official residence of the president, Juan Manuel Santos.

Accompanied by Movistar Team general manager Eusebio Unzué, their families and some of the legends of Colombian cycling such as Lucho Herrera, Alvaro Mejia, Santiago Botero and Fabio Parra Cochise Rodriguez. Nairo was awarded the Cross of Boyaca in the degree of Grand Commander; the award distinguishes merited Colombians abroad. President Santos Quintana received a KOM jersey which crowned him as the best climber in the 2013 Tour de France, a race in which he also won a stage win, the white jersey of best young rider and the second place overall.

The awards continue on Wednesday with a packed press conference in Bogota before moving to his native Boyacá, where he will be received by all his countrymen in Tunja, Cómbita and Arcabuco three stops of the caravan that will accompany the great national hero.

President Juan Manuel Santos announced the official application, which is going to the UCI, for Boyaca to host the World Championship road cycling in 2017.

Nick Nuyens to Ride the Vuelta
The 2011 Tour of Flanders winner; Nick Nuyens will start the Vuelta a España on the 24th of August with the hope of preparing for the 2014 Classics season. Since his accident in the 2012 Paris-Nice he has struggled to regain his previous form. We interviewed Nick earlier this year, you can read it here.

Tour de San Luis Announces Eight WorldTour Teams for 2014
Astana with Vincenzo Nibali, Omega Pharma – Quick-Step with Mark Cavendish, Cannondale with Peter Sagan, along with BMC, Orica-GreenEdge, Lampre-Merida, Movistar and Garmin-Sharp are the top eight teams announced by the organizers of the Tour de San Luis. The 8th edition of the Argentinean UCI 2.1 race was officially launched to be held between the 20th and the 26th of January.

The Tour introduces a new summit finish to Cerro El Almago to add the previously used finishes up the Potrero de los Funes and the Mirador del Sol en Mero, there is also the 19.2 kilometre individual time trial in the capital San Luis.

Last year the local Dani Diaz won, ahead of Van Garderen, with stage wins for Cavendish, Modolo, Diniz, Tuft, Guevara, Contador and Gavazzi, Leipheimer and Nibali took the victory in 2010.

The Minister of Sports, Adelaida Muniz, led the presentation with the last winner, Dani Diaz. Also attended by the Vice President of the Pan American Cycling Confederation and Argentinean Federation President, Gabriel Curuchet, and Giovanni Lombardi from the organization.

THESUFFERFEST: Chris Froome Looking at Stems
While watching the Tour de France this year, it struck the guy’s at THE SUFFERFEST that Chris Froome looks down a lot. So, on a slow day around Sufferfest Studios, some of The Minions created a blog about this unique riding style. As the Sufferfest say “we don’t know why it’s funny, but WE CAN’T STOP LOOKING. And, no, it has nothing to do with our videos. Or anything, really.”

The PEZ NEWSWIRE!
Don’t forget to check the “NEWSWIRE” section, you can find it down the right hand side on the home page, just above the EuroTrash section. The bits of news that missed the EuroTrash deadline are in there, plus any news as-it-happens will be added there too.